L/c White due back at Bde. from Paris leave.
Doctor takes my Field Hospital cards. Tests my lungs & asks re gas shell.
What hellish pain I suffer.
Archives for May 2017
Sunday 13 May 1917
– high winds & rain
Bde. Moves into Petit Vimy.
My back, chest & head are paining me. Head feels about to burst.
Saturday 12 May 1917
– fine
Am feeling very weak. Tis monotonous in Hospl.
Friday 11 May 1917
– fine day
Up at 7:30 am after breakfast in bed. Doctor attends @ 10:30 am. Describes my case as from gas poisoning. Australian nurses & doctors very kind.
*Effects of inhalation of chlorine include a burning pain in the throat and eyes, accompanied by a sensation of suffocation; pain, which may be severe, is felt in the chest, especially behind the sternum. Respiration becomes painful, rapid, and difficult ; coughing occurs. Severe headache rapidly follows with a feeling of great weakness in the legs. (http://www.vlib.us/medical/gaswar/chlorine.htm)
Thursday 10 May 1917
Arrived last night at Casualty Clearing Station at 9:30 pm. Given clean change & put to bed on a stretcher. Awake all night, very cold. Up at 6 am. Wash in bed & breakfast of porridge. At 9:30 am we are put into a car for the station & board train for Boulogne, arriving after numerous painful stops @ 6 pm. Detrained @ 7 pm. Put into bus for #2 Australian General Hospl. in marquees.
*2 AGH Boulogne, France This was a large tented hospital, and most of the patients were battle casualties. It came to specialise in the treatment of fractures. This hospital experienced many air raids. Towards the end of the war there were outbreaks of influenza. When the armistice was signed, the staff barely found time to celebrate. They were too busy treating the influenza victims who continued to arrive throughout November.
Wednesday 9 May 1917
– fine
My temperature goes up again. 103˚.
Enemy airman chased back by our Anti Aircraft guns as he tried to down one of our balloons.
Temperature at 102˚ in afternoon.
Though scarcely able to stand had a sudden order to pack up & get ready to go to C.C.S. Doctors orders are that temperature is not decreasing. I leave in car at 6 pm.
*Casualty Clearing Station – The CCS was the first large, well-equipped and static medical facility that the wounded man would visit. Its role was to retain all serious cases that were unfit for further travel; to treat and return slight cases to their unit; and evacuate all others to Base Hospitals. It was often a tented camp, although when possible the accommodation would be in huts. (http://www.1914-1918.net/wounded.htm
Tuesday 8 May 1917
– rain
Rain heavy all night.
Am still detained in Hospl. Micky Werick goes to Leicester on leave (special).
My temperature is up again 103.
Feeling weak
Still vomiting
Eyes weak & sore thru’ effect of gas. Damn the Hun & his blasted base methods.
Monday 7 May 1917
– fine
Still feeling very weak. Brigade moves up to Machine Gun Fort at 1 pm.
1st Div. out of time. Are going back for a months rest – they deserve it.
We lose 51 ships last week – a huge total.
Sunday 6 May 1917
– fine
Capt. J. W. Wallis comes to Hosp. to see me. He regrets my indisposition & hopes I will soon return to the office as the work has been thrown back on a/c of my absence.
I vomit a great deal. Wallis pleads with doctor to have me not removed but given every attention.
An enemy aeroplane flys low over Villers au Bois dropping bombs & firing his machine gun very near to the Hospt. camp that I’m in.
*”…the doctors were requested NOT TO SEND DRACOT TO A HOSPITAL. HIS SERVICES ARE URGENTLY NEEDED!!!” Excerpt from Draycott’s memoir “Pawn No. 883”.
Saturday 5 May 1917
With temperature of 103.4° I’m admitted to Hospital – ie. a stretcher with 3 threadbare blankets thereon. ‘Tis active service!!!
L/c Hodge is put in my office till I come back – too bad! I dread my return for things will be topsy turvey & missing.
*Admitted to Field Ambulance Hospital….Fully clothed all the time, of course. It’s war. And am still on the battlefield. Excerpt from Draycott’s memoir “Pawn No. 883”.
